


Just Be Yourself

by notanotherscreenname



Series: FeVeR Dreams [4]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: FeVeR being domestic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-25 01:38:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6175156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notanotherscreenname/pseuds/notanotherscreenname
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Felix and Carver adopted a qunari girl. The night of her first school dance she is bullied and they have a heart to heart.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Just Be Yourself

**Author's Note:**

> So Rachel4revenge prompted this one from my list of Halestorm songs. She wanted Felix and Carver and Bad Girls World: You’ll be ok if you be yourself for no one else, They’ll hate you cause you’re beautiful, So blaze the trail that no one can, Cause they’ll never understand, That we live in a bad girls world. It's kind of a girl power song a bit so rather than go with the boys getting this pep talk I thought I'd play around with the idea of them adopting kids in the future. I dunno it feels a little, "very special episode," to me but I like most of it.

    Felix checked his watch again. It was ten past eight and Val was not home yet. She was supposed to be home at eight o’clock exactly. This was her first school dance without a chaperone and he was willing to give her a little leeway but his patience was coming to an end. He stood up to pace and peeked out of the window to the drive. Still nothing. He checked his watch again.  
  
    “She’s fifteen minutes late. Should I call them?”  
  
    Carver sat his book down and reached for Felix’s hand. “Give her a little longer. If she’s not home by eight thirty we can start to worry.”  
  
    “What if something happened?” He smoothed his hair down and looked out of the window again.  
  
    “Like what?”  
  
    “What if they had an accident?”  
  
    Carver pulled Felix into his lap and stroked his back in circles. “Coming up with these scenarios is not going to help.”  
  
    “Vishante Kaffas, how can you be so calm?”  
  
    “Because I’m not an only child.” He kissed the bridge of Felix’s nose and said, “they probably lost track of time.”  
  
    Felix stood up and checked his watch again. ”Maker, twenty minutes now.”  
  
    He glanced out of the window again and Carver said, “Why don’t you go make some tea. I’ll let you know when she gets home.”  
  
    Felix groaned impatiently but gave in when Carver stood and shooed him to the kitchen with a kiss and a pat on the ass. “Fine, but the minute they pull up Carver.”  
  
    Carver nodded and sat back down with his book. He didn’t get through another paragraph before his phone rang. It was Vals ride to the dance asking if she was home because she had gone missing from the dance. Before worry had time to set in Val burst through the door like a storm and slammed it shut once she was inside. He let them know she had returned, thanked them for calling and hung up.  
  
    “Fucking assholes,” she screeched as she flung her left shoe across the living room followed by the right one which whizzed past Felix’s head.  
  
    “Valeria Levina Alexius-Hawke, we do not throw things in this house and watch your language.”  
  
    Her face shriveled as a sob caught in her throat. She dropped her eyes to the floor and murmured, “I’m sorry papa.”  
  
    Felix rushed to her side reaching her at the same time as Carver. Carver tucked her head under his chin, just so to avoid her horns, and rubbed her back in a mirror of the soothing gesture he’d shown Felix earlier. He mused to himself that at fourteen she was already almost too tall to do it comfortably.  
  
    Felix put his arms around them both and said, “Mouse, what happened?”  
  
    Val sniffled and replied, “stupid fuc…, I’m big and dumb and ugly and someone decided to let me and everyone else know it.”  
  
    Carver steered them all to the couch to sit and handed the box of tissues to Val. He smoothed a stray lock of silver hair away from her face and asked, “what did they do?”  
  
    “I was sitting at my table drinking punch and Max came and sat by me. He acted really nice. Like he …,” hiccup, “like he,” her breath wooshed out as she finished with a sob, “Like he liked me.”  
  
    “Well that doesn’t sound bad Mousy.”  
  
    Her chin quivered as she continued, “that’s not all. Evelyn was behind me the whole time. Max was just distracting me while ’Evil’yn was putting this on my horns.”  
  
    She fished in her purse and pulled out a piece of paper strung between two plastic rings. The paper read, “BIG DUMB OX”  
  
    Felix snatched the paper from her hands and stood up rage building, “how could these little spoiled fucking rotten assholes do such a thing?”  
  
    “Fee,” Carver warned, “Watch it.” He poked Val in the ribs playfully and said, “sheesh, like Papa like daughter huh?”  
  
    Felix slapped his hands down against his legs and said, “I take it back. I’m sorry Mouse, you were right. They’re fucking assholes. Still no throwing things in the house though.”  
  
    That pulled a smile from her but it didn’t quite make it to her magenta eyes. She looked between the two of them and said, “Daddy, Papa, can I stay home tomorrow?”  
  
    “Absolutely not. No. Uh uh.” Felix was carving a rut into the floor as he steamed.  
  
    Carver raised his voice above Felix’s and said, “yes if you really want to.” He held up his hands palms out to stall them, “But, I would rather you go to school and hold your head up and defy those little rich tits. You are beautiful and smart and they are just afraid of you.”  
  
    “Because I’m big and dumb and ugly.”  
  
    He turned her to face him and said, “No they are afraid of you because you are different from them. They live in a very narrow world Mouse, one that doesn’t make room for differences. That doesn’t make them right though, you are beautiful and smart.”  
  
    “But now everyone is going to be calling me that.”  
  
    “Oh no they won’t,” Felix seethed, “I’m going there tomorrow to have a talk with the principal and then I’m going to call their parents and give them a piece of my mind. What kind of monsters raise such brats anyway?”  
  
    “Fee. Weren’t you making tea? Mouse might like a cup.”  
  
    Felix eyed him sideways. He knew Carver just wanted him to take some time to calm himself a bit but he didn’t want to be calm. He wanted to ring the neck of every little brat that had laughed at his baby girl. Val said she would like a cup though so he gave in and went into the kitchen. Carver pulled Val into a hug and said, “I’m sorry your night ended so badly.”  
  
    “It’s not your fault.”  
  
    “Not yours either.”  
  
    “What should I do Daddy?”  
  
    “Well, you can’t stay home forever. So you go to school, you hold your head up high and look down on all of those snobby kids and you be yourself. The truth is if you be yourself you’ll be just fine.”  
  
    Felix returned with the cup of tea just as she asked, “what if they still hate me?”  
  
    He put the cup down on the table and said, “Fuck em. They’ll never understand you if they don’t want to but that just means they miss out on how wonderful, and amazing, and spectacular you are.”  
  
    Carver stood and pulled her up with him, “Now, it’s getting late, you need to get ready for bed.”  
  
    She hugged them both, bending at the waist a bit to hug Felix, and went to her room.  
  
    The next day after Felix drove her to school he spoke with the principle, Vals teacher and the Trevelyans. The faculty assured Felix that that sort of bullying was under their no tolerance policy and the Trevelyan twins were suspended for three days. Before leaving Mr. and Mrs. Trevelyan asked that Val be called into the office. They made Max and Evelyn apologize and assured Felix that on top of the suspension they were both grounded for a week. Felix thanked them and the faculty before walking Val back to her class.  
  
    Outside of the door he hugged her and said, “remember what your daddy said, be yourself for you and no one else.”  
  
    “She bent to kiss his cheek and said, “ok Papa I love you.”  
  
    A few weeks passed and one afternoon as Felix was picking Val up he saw her skipping and smiling. He realized she had a dwarf girl strung across her shoulders holding on to her horns and squealing with delight as Val jumped and dodged through the crowd to reach Felix.  
  
    “Papa, Papa, can Malika come home with us for a while? Her mom said it was ok. She’s over there.” Malika shrieked and giggled as Val spun around to point across the courtyard to her mother.  
  
    Felix spoke with Malikas mother and they agreed that she would pick Malika up at seven thirty as long as the girls promised to do their homework before anything else. Felix assured her that school work always came first in their home. Val snorted and added, “always,” with a dramatic eye roll for Malika’s benefit.  
  
    When they got home the girls careened into the cabin giggling and whispering to each other. Val introduced Malika to Carver and they sat down at the kitchen table to get their homework started while Felix made them a snack.  
  
    Carver asked Malika, “Val has never mentioned you are you a new student?”  
  
    She nodded, “today was my first day. We just moved here from Orzamar.”  
  
    “Well how did your first day go?”  
  
    She beamed at Val and said, “well I was scared to death at first. But when I sat down next to her Val just said ‘hey I’m Val’ and smiled. And then when Evelyn said I was so short I could bungee jump off of a curb, Val stood up for me. She told Evelyn that she felt bad for her because she lives in a narrow world and is just obviously afraid of people who are different.”  
  
    Felix asked, “what happened then?”  
  
    Val said, “Ms. Howe sent her to the office and she got a detention.”  
  
    “Then Endrin Aeducan sat with us at lunch.”  
  
    “Is that good,” Carver asked.  
  
    Val snorted and said, “that’s really good. He’s super cute. I told Malika, just be yourself and he’ll like you. And now they are totally in love.”  
  
    Carver and Felix shared a private smile.  



End file.
